Power Line's Scott Johnson shares some words from a new biography of Salmon P. Chase, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Author Walter Stahr wrote:
Chase knew profound personal tragedy. By the age of 44, he had lost three wives to untimely deaths. After his third wife succumbed to tuberculosis in 1852, Chase never remarried. He also lost nine siblings and four children.
My own grandfather buried two wives, and was buried by his third, who was my grandmother. When anyone today tells me they have it tough, I reflect on the almost routine tragedy experienced by those who lived before 1900.
As the life of Chase demonstrates, it wasn't just the poor and downtrodden who experienced the premature death of many loved ones. For all its faults, I'm glad I live in an age of antibiotics and outpatient hip replacements.
